1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to hand-held striking tools, such as hammers and hatchets, and in particular to hand-held tools for roofers having a need for a multipurpose tool to quickly, efficiently and accurately remove and replace roofing materials.
2. Description of the Prior Art
This invention relates to a new multipurpose hand-held tool and the methods of using it, and more particularly to a combination roofing tool and method of use which allows a roofer the ability to hatchet, hammer, remove nails, pry off old roofing materials and measure the distance to quickly and accurately lay new shingles on a roofing surface.
In the past, it has been conventional to require the roofer to carry several tools to perform this function. The necessity for carrying these devices are obviously not convenient for a roofer to use, places the roofer at additional risk of injury and inefficiency by requiring that the roofer carry additional heavy extra tools for performing these multiple tasks.
Heretofore, manufacturers of tools for roofing but have not provided tools that are capable of multi-tasking. Rather, until the present invention a roofer must bring along an assemblage of separate tools for cutting, prying, hammering and measuring. This is difficult and very burdensome for a roofer. Being burdened with a plurality of tools to accomplish these separate functions slows down the roofer and diminishes his or her efficiency, tires the roofer out from the multiple tools and places the roofer in greater danger due to the danger associated with multiple tools upon a sloped roofing surface. Presently, no manufacturer of hand-held roofing tools provides a simple tool with these multiple features eliminating the need for many separate tools.
It has, of course, been known to combine functions with a single tool to avoid the need to carry multiple tools. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,782 there is a hammer described which contains both a vertical and horizontal level in the handle so that a carpenter may level horizontally each nail to be nailed in place just prior to driving the nail.
Whereas, U.S. Pat. No. 3,740,799 discloses a surgical tool which comprises a surgical scalpel having a scalpel blade at one end and a series of metered markings on the shaft so as to make longitudinal measurement as well as a device for measuring the circumferential diameter of an orifice or mouth of a tube or duct at the other end of the tool.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 2,952,025 shows the combination of a cutting knife and a tape measure in the handle to facilitate cuts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,520 discusses a combined tool and method for using a retractable knife and pitch gage to provide pitch measurements for roofers.
And U.S. Pat. No. 5,315,725 discloses a hand-held tool for rescue workers to extract victims from damaged motor vehicles, including a handle, a head, a foot, and a saw blade that projects from the bottom of the foot.
However, until now, no one invented a satisfactory multipurpose roofing tool which provides for easy use and worker efficiency and can perform all of the operations of cutting, hammering, prying, pulling and measuring in a single tool. Furthermore, tools presently available for, in particular, roofing applications are not adequate to assure with the one simple and relatively inexpensive tool, a means for cutting, hammering nails, extracting nails, prying off old roofing materials and measuring the distance between shingles when laying new shingles.
On the contrary, while the foregoing body of prior art indicates it to be will known to used hand held tools for cutting and prying or cutting and measuring, the provision of a simple and cost effective device such as the one disclosed in this invention is not contemplated which can perform all of the operations of cutting, prying pulling, hammering and measuring in a single tool. The foregoing disadvantages are overcome by the unique multipurpose tool of the present invention as will be made apparent from the from the following description.